Post by necrovoker on Oct 16, 2017 3:30:03 GMT

Hey guys!

Getting back into the game after a small hiatus and I've set my eyes on my new Warmachine waifu: Helynna. I played her last night out of theme and it worked fairly well, but I usually prefer having a strong thematic behind my list. How do you usually play Helly? Which themes are right for her? Is she simply better out of theme? I had some ideas but I'd love to her your thoughts.

Post by HubertJFarnsworth on Oct 16, 2017 13:01:04 GMT

I'm not personally a fan of her so grain of salt here, but I usually see hey in Forges with a few heavies. With Legion or I could see her trying that too with Sentinels. I'm sure there are others with more hands on experience though.

Post by dagowit on Oct 16, 2017 15:50:48 GMT

I had a list in Forges of War with dual Griffons, Manticores, Hydras, and Shyeel Artificers. I recently tried it with a single Artificer and Lanyssa Ryssyl and it significantly changed focus economy and how hard-hitting the list was (I played two games into a Kromac2 beast list).

I want to try her with dual Sentinels in theme but haven't gotten around to it yet.

Post by dagowit on Oct 17, 2017 10:12:28 GMT

While Forges of War seems obvious, I can't help but feel the theme might be too restrictive for her. Dagowit, how much did you feel the loss of Sentinels or Halberdiers in your list?

Not too much but then again the list was never intended to be a replacement for Sentinels. It was intended to have high ARM and annoy enemy shooting.What I have found is that it is not truly an ARM cracking list but having Hand of Destruction on an important target does make a huge difference. For this reason, I much prefer Helynna with both kinds of Arcanists (solos and the unit) as it gives her enough excess focus to get a spell off every round.I'm sure I could construct a passable Defenders list with AFG and Halberdiers - and it might even be better into my local meta - but I have a thing for myrmidons so I keep experimenting with them.

Post by necrovoker on Oct 17, 2017 16:15:11 GMT

GreatBigTree I've been tinkering with Legions of Dawn as well, I like the overall idea but I haven't been able to make the details all work just yet. Like you I plan on trying her with full Sents and full Invictors, but I'm not sure about jack marshals. On the one hand marshaled myrmidons can become quite scary in this particular list (Sphinxes or Griffons in particular), but loosing HoD and RoW on those 1-2 myrmidons makes me sad. What was your overall experience with your list?

dagowit Thank you for your insight. I haven't played with the House Shyeel Arcanists yet but I'm very eager to try them with Helly as well, either in Forges or out of theme. Might just have to give it a go and see for myself!

The list is strong but its also super grindy. It moves up the board and just starts to attrition things up. Not exactly my favorite style of play but it can be rewarding. The griffon can do a crapton of work! I was shocked. Anyway, maybe you will have fun with it too =]

Post by GreatBigTree on Oct 18, 2017 0:12:00 GMT

@ Necro:

I've never played the list, but my first 75 point (non-theme) army included Helynna, Sents with command, Riflemen with command, a Phoenix, Manticore, Chimera and Griffon. It also had one or two arcanists and a Ghost Sniper. And Sylys and a HG Thane.

It felt/feels Stronger than the Forges lists I built and played with her, and it was far from optimized. Just stuff I thought looked cool.

Post by necrovoker on Oct 18, 2017 3:17:35 GMT

adakai That's an interesting list, thanks! I might try a similar one but with Invictors + Sents instead of double sents.

GreatBigTree Keep me posted on your experience I'd be interested! I'm just starting with Helly, with one game under my belt with her, but I love the gal already. Like you my first game was with basically what I had lying around and painted: Hyperion, Phoenix, Sylys, Sents + CA, Halbs + CA, HRT, 2 Arcanists. Far for optimized, but it was very fun to play and I never actually felt like I was fighting an uphill battle, even against someone using Storm Division (albeit not fully optimized either).

Post by dagowit on Oct 18, 2017 12:44:33 GMT

My first mk3 list had 'jacks, the AFG and a unit of Halberdiers + CA. With the CID on Battle Engines and the bonuses from Defenders of Ios, I imagine that it would probably be even better today. The AFG is hard to hurt at range already and +2 ARM is significant.

Post by necrovoker on Oct 18, 2017 20:59:26 GMT

dagowit I would be very interested to try out Helynna in Defenders. She's fantastic with Halberdiers. I never thought of using the AFG with her, but between Deceleration and her feat the engine becomes indeed basically invincible at range.

Post by GreatBigTree on Oct 19, 2017 1:16:37 GMT

Well, that will be a bit. At least the New Year, probably closer to April. I've finished a Forges theme and have picked up Rahn, and I'm now working on Elara 2 in Defenders... but after that... I just need Invictors. And a pair of Sphinx. And a couple Scyirs. So, it's a little way out yet.

Post by isotope on Oct 24, 2017 16:56:38 GMT

I'm about to try a list for her that is the complete opposite of a theme list. It's a "thematically accurate" list in my opinion considering she's like the biggest baddest mechanic in town and would likely be trusted with character jacks of other casters for maintenance/repair. My "story" behind the list is that she's chillin i the VIP workshop with some mechanics fixing up the character jacks and the AFG when Lanyssa comes running in and is like " Just spotted some incoming bad guys while scouting to the north!" and they jump into action to go fight. I call the list "All the kings' Horses":

Haven't tried it yet, waiting on Hemera to finish being painted. I think it is tactically sound with lots of boostable guns, arc nodes, and rhythm of war. Putting HoD on something for 1 focus then shooting it with 4 POW 14 boostable shots plus 2 AFG shots can one round a heavy. After that you can use RoW to get everything positioned better after the shots.